Hawk - Noble warrior who uses a special sword powered by elven magics. Apparently it protects and guides him, unfortunately this protection does not extend to his companions.

Gort - Giant of a man, he employs an impressive looking maul. Not the sort of thing you want connecting with your brain housing group.

Baldin - Dwarf who has some hygiene problems, using a whip to catch raw fish for consumption is among the least of them. Gets a dagger in the ribs and ends up as the dead dwarf in the bubble.

Crow - Last of the elves and his archery skills could put William Tell to shame. Whenever he speaks it reminds me of a dimwitted Vulcan.

Ranulf - Grizzled fighter with only one hand, he employs a rapid fire crossbow, it actually takes a clip of bolts, much like an assault rifle! Killed by Voltan.

Woman - Don't look at me, that is all they ever call her. She is some sort of good witch that Hawk saves from being burned at the stake. Has a bag of glow in the dark tricks up her sleeves.

Elaine - Hawk's beautiful (cough) wife, killed by Voltan.

Lots of Evil Guys - Dead meat, oh are they ever dead meat.

Drogo - Voltan's adopted son who just wanted daddy to respect him as a warrior. Killed by Hawk.

Voltan - Jack Palance! Evil brother to the noble Hawk, an iron helm hides the hideous disfigurement of his face caused by Elaine sticking a torch into his eye. Not that anything women do is like having a flaming brand stuck in your socket mind you. Cut down by Hawk.

The Plot:

The cover art looks pretty average for a sword and sorcery flick and we all expect some goofy "magical" effects, but when those two glowing hula hoops appear all bets are off. Of course Hawk and Ranulf's journey through the haunted forest could be considered fair warning, it's just that the hula hoops mark where I believe the director began dropping acid during shoots.

Years ago Voltan killed the wise and good king, at least I think he was a king. Maybe I'm taking too much for granted, if he was all that wise then he would have tossed his evil brat down a well long ago. Now the wicked swordsman is terrorizing the countryside, burning Ranulf's village and taking the Abbess prisoner. Only a powerful group of heroes can stop the spread of evil and only one man can lead them, Ranulf transforms into a single handed bloodhound and locates Hawk in under two scenes. Using the good witch's magic to quickly assemble a formidable party allows for character development, but some hooded guy walking in and reasoning, "You all meet in a tavern." would have been just as coherent.

Okay, we have our warriors and evil forces to oppose them, what could possibly be missing? (here plot, here plot, come here boy) Hold on a minute, the evil guys want a hefty ransom for the Abbess' safe return, the party will have to battle a group of rich and vicious slavers for the gold. That was little problem, but when Drogo takes it upon himself to confront Hawk a fight ensues and the result (dead Drogo) sets Voltan off.

Jack Palance's character has had a difficult life. First the woman he desires weds Hawk, then she burns half his face off, when he tries to kill his goody goody brother with a crossbow she manages to get in the way and now this, the darn kid he had to adopt and raise as a son (funny thing, no woman wants to marry a guy with scar tissue for the left side of his face) gets sent to the big orphanage in the sky.

Finally the two brothers do cross swords in a very lopsided ticket. Hawk wields the "Elven Mindstone Blade of Jack Palance Slaying and General Whoopass" and the outcome is pretty much a forgone conclusion. The ending almost shoves the idea of sequel in you face, but I can not imagine any act to follow the very special film that is "Hawk the Slayer."

Things I Learned From This Movie:

The old king will always hang on long enough to bequeath his legacy onto the good son, even after being stabbed through the heart with a sword.

Hawk: "And how did the mighty Baldin come to be in this sorry mess?" Baldin: "Too much wine, a friendly fight or two...you know how it goes. A crack on the skull from a sultry wench, and I wake to find myself at the mercy of these chanting fools!"

"Lizard's eyeballs!" Yeah, I watched this movie over and over on Beta. Cheezy as it may be I always thought it would make a good TV show in a Hercules/Xena sorta way. After more than 20 years I'll finally be able to watch it clearly on DVD.. and in widescreen. I can't wait. Sure there is Lord of the Rings to satify the DnD audience now, but back then we just had Beastmaster and Krull, Conan and Excalibur, and for those fortunate to find a copy or see on cable: Hawk The Slayer. Hey, did anyone notice the actor who plays Ranulf "One-Handed-Man", is the narrator for the Medal of Honor games? You don't see him, but his raspy voice is unmistakable.

Today is November 4, 2002 and I just received and watched my copy of Hawk the Slayer on DVD!! I still can't believe it happened! It is actually due for release tomorrow but I pre-ordered it. If you own the VHS version I highly recommend getting the DVD anyway (I just bought the VHS version on e-Bay a few months ago -- about par for my luck). Anyway, the DVD has an original trailer which is very cool and also a series of still shots from the film although I would like to have seen "behind the scenes" shots but I'll take what I can get. The ability to jump to scenes via the "Scene Selection" feature is always a plus. As far as the video, it isn't "digitally remastered" or anything but is fairly clean and DVD beats VHS for pause/rewind/FF picture quality. The quality of the film itself is an oddity -- some scenes look very clean as though they were filmed today while other parts look like something from the 70's. And sometimes shots of the same sequence in the film will contain both clean footage and poor footage alternating back and forth as the camera shots switch. Ah, who cares -- I loved this movie as a kid and I love it now. Now if ONLY someone would make a sequel so I could find out what the Wizards in the South are up to...AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHH !!!!

Hi, my names Cherie, and im Ray Charlesons daughter, (thats Crow the elf 2 you) i'd just like to say to those who liked Crow, hes still a good looking man, and im even better ;) please email me on your thoughts. also id like to say that since Hawk the Slayer he has done much better movies, recently one with Steven Segal. xxx

I just introduced my wife to my alltime favorite childhood movie on dvd. She thought "Hawk The Slayer" was worthy of praise. Since she never saw it as a kid I found this very satisfying. My brother mike wanted to be Crow. He worshipped that elf( so did I seceretly). I told him, " he wastes his time and mine", with his dream to become elven. It's nice to know I have company in my unhealthy devotion to this pre-"Lord Of The Rings" classic. Later, fellow fans!

All right! It was a poorly made movie, but it was fun to watch. It was one of the first movies I ever saw on cable and we were almost late for school many times because of it. I always had a thing for Hawk and my sister loved Crow. The characters were fun and the plot was pretty well written out. The special effects were non-existant, but then we are taking the ealy 80's. I even wrote out my own stories to continue on with Hawk, just for fun. We may be a sick lot, but Hawk fans stand by their show!

This is SAD, i've been after this film for years, I finally got it on DVD the other day, Oh what a blast, I was 11 years old again, sitting in my local cinema watching the cheesiest sword and sorcery film of all time, well worth every penny. This film got me into fantasy in a big way, not long after I read 'The Lord Of The Rings'. Sheer inspiration, Thanks 'Hawk the Slayer', Top Film, should be a cult icon.